I recently purchased a Lionel 6-9540 Blue Comet observation car. One of the intereior lights does not light. Does anyone out there know how to get this car apart so that the bulb or whatever is wrong with it can be replace?
I have down-loaded exploded diagrams of the car showing the individual parts but have had no success in getting the car apart.
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Grab the car from underneath in your left hand, grasping the third window on one side and the fith opposite between your thumb and middle finger. Squeeze those wedged shaped windows so that they clear the frames. With your right hand grasp the clerestory area of the roof and gnetly tug.
Once the wedges are clear, repeat on the other end.
The roof and window "glass" is all one piece.
Jon 
Sounds like that is the same type of tabbed window car as the Polar Express. I didn't have much luck with the gripping the car sides method, so I developed this one:
http://www.jcstudiosinc.com/BlogShowThread?id=663&categoryId=779
The J&C Studios O Scale Archive is one of the great places on the net for O gaugers.
Pete
Thanks for the quick responses.
I couldn't accomplish the side-grasping method so I tried the tapered craft sticks method and voila!
Your kind help is greatly appreciated. It saved the destruction of a passenger car! 
racingre
I just had to replace a bulb in a similar car. Man, that craft stick method really did the trick. Kudos to the inventor!
Pete, that is outstanding! The only thing I would add is to change all the light bulbs while it is apart.
Pure genius as far as I am concerned. I had the exploded diagram of the car but couldn't figure out how the top came off.
Thanks to Texas Pete I didn't destroy the car which I most certainly would have without his tip.
I must be the only one with special fingers...
Jon
The newer style Baby Madisons (the ones with interiors) have two screws on the bottom to unfasten the roof. Obviously a huge improvement. Lionel really should also have changed the design of the cars without interiors when they did the PE cars. Besides changing bulbs, there are probably a lot of kids who would like to be able to easily open the cars up, put figures inside, or whatever.
No doubt there are many, many older style Baby Madisons out there with chewed up roofs and sides.
I'm pretty new to the O gauge game and I come here mostly to listen and learn, so it's nice to be able to give something back. Happy to be of help.
Pete
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